SEQUIM — Mike and Linda Gooch, owners of Happy Valley Alpaca Ranch, expect their third festival celebrating the fiber industry to be bigger than ever.
Last year’s festival drew in about 500 visitors, and the couple expects numbers to rise.
This year’s Dyefeltorspin will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the farm at 4629 Happy Valley Road.
To get there from South Third Avenue in Sequim, turn west onto Happy Valley Road and watch for the “alpaca crossing” sign on the south side of the road.
It was Linda’s desire to educate the public about alpacas that drove the first festival, the name coined by their son-in-law.
That one-day event mainly was a meet-and-greet of the ranch’s herd for its annual shearing day.
In 2015, the festival expanded to two days.
Like last year, Saturday will focus on fiber arts, with artisans from Clallam and Jefferson counties demonstrating how to take fleece — and even hair from dogs and rabbits — and turn it into wearables from head to foot.
Visitors will see how they sort, card, dye, felt, spin and weave the array of fibers.
“We want to show what can be done with fleece,” Mike said.
With a baker’s dozen of vendors already booked for both days, plus the Gooches’ farm store open, there will be lots of examples to buy.
Added Linda: “We want to teach people so we can keep the fiber industry alive.”
What’s new
New this year will be Curbside Bistro selling gourmet hot dogs, sausages and gyros both days.
This also will be the first time people can pose with an alpaca for a fee, courtesy of ranch photographer/graphic artist Cindy Marie Kern.
Since working with the Gooches on marketing the ranch, Kern laughingly admitted she’s now an alpaca wrangler, too.
Sign-up sheets for her photography classes will be available at the festival, or contact her at 406-281-0730 or cindy@cindymariephoto.com.
Newest alpacas
Visitors can meet the newest members of the herd.
Rosie and Honey, with their rose-gray fleece, were acquired from a nearby farm.
Also available for petting will be 11 other female alpacas, six males and one llama.
Mike Gooch said alpacas have the personalities of cats: Some are very aloof, and others demand your attention.
And there’s one more adorable critter at the ranch: nearly 3-month-old Luna, the ranch’s Australian shepherd, who as a wriggly bundle makes the alpacas both curious and nervous.
Vendors will be on hand both days as well as several Washington Old Time Fiddlers Association members.
Shearing day
Sunday will dawn as the annual shearing day where volunteers can help with hands-on shearing and sorting of fiber.
With 19 animals to shear, it’s a demanding and dirty project, and the more hands the better.
The Gooches have been raising and breeding alpacas for their softly sumptuous and cold-resistant fleece for the past 19 years. Their fleece is six to seven times warmer than sheep’s wool, they said.
From the beginning, the doe-eyed creatures never were just livestock for the Gooches; since 1997, they’ve each had their own name and will come when called.
And their inner clocks tell them when it’s breakfast or suppertime.
After shearing, the Gooches send their alpacas’ fleece to a processor, which returns it washed, ready for their favorite spinners.
About 65 percent of the inventory in their cozy shop is locally handmade, and their goal is to make that 100 percent.
Visitors also can get the drop on Sequim Lavender Weekend because the Gooches have been growing their own Provence lavender for several years. It is available in the ranch store.
A byproduct business is composting the alpacas’ pellet-like manure, and it’s something Linda swears by for making soil rich and scaring deer away. The manure is sold year-round and will be for sale at the festival.
If you can’t get to Dyefeltorspin, free tours are available daily by calling 360-681-0948.
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Patricia Coate is a reporter and special sections editor with the Sequim Gazette, which along with other Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News and Forks Forum is part of the Olympic Peninsula News Group. Reach her at pcoate@sequimgazette.com.
